A Universe in Peril
by iamthatvoice
Summary: The kids, now in their late teens, are in the midst of Cyberspace's worst war in recorded history. Will relationships overcome the odds? What will become of Cyberspace? MattxInez
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hi Cyberspace fans! This is my first ever fic, so thanks for reading! I'd love constructive criticism. A couple more chapters are just about finished and I'll add them pretty soon. After that, updates may be sporadic but I'll try my best! This will mostly center around Matt and Inez, but I hope to explore Jackie as a character as well. Lots of drama and angst. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

Matt, Jackie, and Inez sat in a secluded corner of control central, looking out at the stars in exhaustion. How many years had they been holding the forces of evil off of Motherboard? They were practically adults by now. Their once fun and silly adventures had detoriated into endless battles to keep Motherboard just barely clinging to life.

Cybersites were losing control of themselves and being subordinated to Hacker. Months ago, Castleblanca citizens had simply given up and moved to the Northern Frontier to begin Hacker's army. Other sites had been soon to follow. Chaos reigned, and the three humans' history had deemed them Cyberspace's heros. They had been forced to split up, taking Motherboard's weak, uncertain portals all over the galaxy to rally citizens in defense against Hacker's oppression.

Matt looked out at the twinkling stars and felt none of the excitement that he normally did while viewing Cyberspace. Shuddering at the vast nothingness, he turned to his two friends. Jackie was tight-lipped and motionless, a far cry from her usual pacing in stressful situations. Her bun that was usually on the top of her head was now at a more sensible position at the nape of her neck. She was completely silent, another uncharacteristic act.

His gaze shifted to Inez, who was sitting cross-legged with a laptop and typing furiously. She was surrounded by papers documenting fresh censuses, cybersites that were taken over, and all kinds of data pertaining to the war. Despite being the youngest of the three, Inez was the only one to retain her fiery determination to defeat the cyborg. Jackie and Matt, on the other hand, had lost most hope.

Matt observed the dark circles underneath Inez's eyes and her generally unkempt appearance. She never stopped moving, erratically piling papers and entering data. There was something frantic about the way she searched for answers, starkly contrasting with Matt and Jackie's attitudes. He found himself wanting to stop her urgency and borderline desperation and hold her thin frame close to his, assuring her with gentleness and certainty that it would be okay... But he stopped those forbidden thoughts in their tracks.

"Inez, when was the last time you ate something?" Matt's voice cracked from lack of use.

""R-Fair-City. Status: stalemate. Supplies: adequate. Dead: none. Injured: eight, two almost recovered, three in critical condition," Inez muttered, shoving her glasses up the bridge of her nose and staring intently at the screen. Matt and Jackie exchanged a meaningful look. Communication with their friend gradually had been growing more difficult.

"Ask her again," Jackie murmured, leaning closer to him.

Matt breathed loudly through his nose in frustration. "Look, why don't you give it a try? She listens to you more than she does to me," he whispered.

She sighed. "Fine. Here's hoping she doesn't blow up." Twisting the bracelet on her arm, she tentatively called out. "Inez? Have you eaten yet today?" There was no response save for the clicking of the keyboard. Matt decided that this was the last straw. "All right, that's it," he announced, getting to his feet and moving to squat beside her. "_Inez._"

She stopped what she was doing and looked up at him. "What." Her expression was emotionless, her tone flat and terse. "What is so important that it requires interruption of my work?"

Matt tried his best to soften his voice and to wrap his head around her irrationality. "Listen, me and Jacks are really worried about you. We just want to know if you need something to eat, or anything else."

"I'm fine, thank you," she replied, turning back to the computer screen.

"Inez, we really need to know if you've eaten yet today," Jackie implored, shifting closer and making a brave attempt at being positive and upbeat. "You don't even have to stop working, I'm sure Digit wouldn't mind throwing something together for you." Inez made no reply, turning to shuffle through some papers instead.

Overwhelmed by anger, Matt found himself slamming the laptop shut with such ferocity that even Inez jumped. "You haven't touched food in days, have you?" he accused, his voice raised and his eyes focused on hers. "You leave no time to take care of yourself. When you're not out there on the battlefield in the thick of the most dangerous war Cyberspace has ever seen, you're on this computer typing in numbers that aren't even helping the cause."

"What the hell do you mean?" Inez raised her voice to his level and stood up. "This collective information could be the necessary organization that gets Cyberspace back on its feet and ready to fight back!"

He got to his feet as well, towering over her by at least a head. He was uncomfortably aware of this fact as he relentlessly continued his tirade directed at her small form. "The data isn't helping anything because it's a hopeless case! Motherboard is practically dead, in case you haven't noticed, and without her, Cyberspace can barely defend itself against Hacker."

"Don't you DARE call this a hopeless case!" Inez shouted, backing away from him. "That is not something the Matt I used to know would ever say about this world."

Matt found himself extraordinarily stung by the words "the Matt I used know". He wanted to plead with her, to make Nezzie believe that he was the same Matt, to have her trust him fully and completely.

"Inez, we just want you to take care of yourself," Jackie persisted, breaking the silence as she joined her friends in standing. "Take a break from the data entry, take a nap, get a proper meal."

"Better yet, let's go home," Matt said tensely, shaking himself out of the daydream where he could truthfully promise Inez that everything would be all right. "We haven't been in a week and we all need to rest. There's been a pretty long break in the fighting anyway. I'll go see if Mother B can get us a portal." He left the room, passing Digit flying in on his way out.

"If he really believes that I'm going home during this, he's kidding himself," Inez said with a tone of finality, settling back into position at the computer.

"Inez, I, uh, overheard the conversation you all were having, and, well, I don't know how much you like peanut butter, but I made you this sandwich." Digit brought the plate over to her.

She gave a smile without warmth or humor, taking the plate and setting it beside her. "Thanks Didge."

A pink ellipse appeared in the air a few moments before Matt reentered the room. Motherboard's virus had worn down the sparkles and soaring feeling of traveling through a portal; it now was highly uncomfortable and an unpleasant sensation.

"Didge, we're going back to our world to rest up. We'll be back ASAP," Jackie assured the cybird. Digit gave Jackie and Matt a thumbs up as they began walking towards the portal. "Come on, Inez," Jackie called. "Time to go."

"You guys are being ridiculous. This isn't the the oh-let's-make-big-bad-Hacker-look-silly game of our childhood anymore. Cyberspace NEEDS us for survival, and I'm not leaving," Inez declared.

"Inez, think of yourself for once! You need this time to rest!" Matt expostulated, unable to take it. "I'm not letting you waste away for these people in an alternate universe that aren't instrumental to your life!"

"Look, Mattie, I'll make sure she eats while you're gone-" Digit started.

"The Matt and Jackie I once knew would have never given up on this alternate universe," Inez said coldly, turning back to her laptop and retreating to an unresponsive state.

There it was again. Inez treating Matt and Jackie like they had evolved into horrible new people, simply because they cared about their friend. Matt found himself becoming completely irate as a small flame began in his heart and spread to the rest of his body.

"FINE!" he roared. "Don't come home! Stay here and die like Motherboard and every other schmuck unfortunate enough to cross Hacker's path!" He stalked to the portal with a tentative Jackie close behind him.

As the two adolescents were pulled into the portal for the first time ever without their friend, Matt turned and caught a glimpse of a devastated face before everything became swirling, cloying pink.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Wow, thanks so much for the positive feedback! Glad you guys enjoy the idea of an angsty, apocalyptic Cyberspace as much as I do, haha. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask/tell. I have a fear of being unclear in my writing, lol. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

As she watched the portal fizzle into nothingness, Inez couldn't hide her disbelief that her friends had left Cyberspace without her. She had thought that her stubborn responses would prompt Jackie and Matt to stay for a couple more days while she got the loose data organized, and then, maybe, they could all go home.

_I guess I didn't communicate that too well, _Inez thought sadly, a tear escaping her eye against her wishes. She heard a soft whirring as Digit propelled his way over to land beside her. "Everything okay, Nezzie?" he asked, bravely attempting a smile. They both knew that nothing was okay, but despite this, her heart swelled with emotion due to his kindness.

"Don't call me Nezzie," she responded automatically, a slight hitch in her voice. Her outward tolerance for the nick name had not increased in the slightest over the years, although she found herself not minding as much when _he _said it...

No. She would not allow thoughts of him, especially now that she had been abandoned. _He _had abandoned her.

"I'll be fine, Didge," Inez assured weakly, trying to return the smile. "I'm almost through the most recent updates from cybersites. Then I'm in the clear organization-wise until the next scheduled update, day after tomorrow."

Digit wrung his wings anxiously. "Still, I really think you oughta hit the hay now, Inez," he implored. "You're ahead with the organizing, right? I think you can afford to take care of yourself for a few hours."

She considered this. It was true that she was far ahead of the schedule she had set for herself. Reluctantly, she forced herself to admit that if she didn't sleep soon, fatigue would cause mistakes in her work. She couldn't afford to hurt the cause that she was trying so desperately to help.

"You're right," Inez agreed as she got to her feet and began the trek to her adjacent bedroom. "But don't let me sleep longer than four hours."

"Four hours?!" Digit squawked as he flew alongside of her. "That'll do nothing for ya! Eight at the very least."

They bickered all the way to the small closet that Inez had shoved a cot in for the long stretches that she stayed in Cyberspace during the war. She kicked off her shoes and climbed into the cot. "Sure you'll be okay alone?" she yawned, stretching and laying down. She hadn't felt so ready for sleep in ages.

"I'll be fine. Sleep well, Nezzie," Digit said gently. "You have nothing to worry about. Control central is completely safe and has been since that first major atta-"

"Thanks, Digit," Inez cut him off abruptly. "See you when I get up."

"Okay." He pulled the door shut gently and she could hear him whirring away.

She laid on her back stiffly, staring at the ceiling of the cramped closet. Rigid and now completely awake, she knew there was no way she could get to sleep before reliving the memories of the day that Digit had been about to describe before she stopped him. The day that the war began. The day that absolutely everything about her life and her persona changed.

The day of The Hack Attack that would go down in Cyberspace history.

* * *

_"Your hair is getting pretty long, Inez," the black girl with stunning features noted. She pulled the seated younger girl's hair into a French braid, kneeling behind her on the floor of control central's main room._

_"Yeah, need a haircut, Nezzie?" the gangly ginger sitting at a card table chuckled, leaning towards her and making snipping motions at her hair. She tried to be annoyed at him as she slapped his hand away, but couldn't contain some of her pleased laughter._

_"It may be long, but it's too frizzy for length to matter," the Hispanic girl sighed, surprising herself. She had never found a need to nitpick anyone based on outward appearance before, including herself. She supposed it had something to do with growing older._

_"Whoa there, Inez, guys LIKE wild hair," the older girl protested, finishing off the braid with a flourish. "Isn't that right, Matt?" she inquired, with a meaningful look at him, her eyes flicking to the back of the braided head._

_Matt stroked his chin pensively, then made a sudden move in the game of chess he was playing with Digit. "Checkmate!" he cried triumphantly, gaining an "Awwww!" from his opponent. "Sure, Jacks, I go for crazy hair, especially on myself." He ran his fingers through his messy locks, making them do the impossible and stick up even more than normal. Jackie shot him an exasperated look in which Inez detected a puzzling layer of urgency. _

_"-bzzzt- Inez! Matt!" a cool, robotic, female voice boomed suddenly from above. The squad and Digit turned to face the largest screen that Cyberspace contained. "What's up, Motherboard?" Inez inquired._

_Motherboard, the supreme power, ruler, and wise leader of Cyberspace, looked down at the earth kids. "I need you two to check the status of the detection console in sub-control room B6," she said commandingly, though not unkindly. "I seem to be receiving... very odd signals... It could be faulty."_

_"On it!" Matt said with enthusiasm, slinging his well-worn backpack over his shoulder and starting towards the large doors. "Come on, Nezzie!"_

_"Don't CALL me that, MattHEW," she responded, unable to contain her huge smile as she followed Matt through the doors. Behind their backs, Digit gave Cyberspace's ruler a covert thumbs up as Jackie whispered "Well played, Mother B. Well played."_

_The metal doors slid back together with a clang behind Inez as she scurried to catch up with Matt. Annoyed with herself, she attempted to hold back her excitement for such a menial task._

_Okay, she had to admit that she was _enthralled _to be alone with Matt. As she came up beside him, she couldn't help taking in his tall, lanky body, his strong hands, his effortless and confident smile as he turned to look her way._

_"Just like old times, huh?" he grinned, playfully giving her a light punch in the arm. _

_"Yeah," she said happily as she reflected on their childhood adventures, where they often split into pairs to solve puzzles and mysteries. Jackie with Digit and Matt with Inez. Those had been the days when she saw Matt as more obnoxious than charismatic and closer to a brother than anything else. But as they entered adolescence and Cyberspace's need for rescuing seemed to dwindle, Inez began to see her friend in a different light._

_"I honestly can't believe that you're sixteen now," he said wonderingly. "I feel like we're still just kids trying to use the map in the library-"_

_"Completely unaware that their lives are about to change forever," Inez cut in with a dramatic voice that caused them both to laugh. A short silence followed._

_"I don't know where I would be now if I hadn't met you that day," Matt said quietly. _

_Inez was taken aback. She hadn't heard teasing, joking Matt speak this seriously... well, ever, really. "I guess you, um, wouldn't be buddying it up with cyborgs?" She giggled nervously._

_"More than that," he pressed on. "You keep me grounded, Nezzie. Jacks too, but..." He abruptly stopped walking. Inez, having inadvertently gone a few steps ahead, slowly turned around to face him. _

_"You're, well, you're special," he got out, apparently struggling to find the words to express his feelings. "You've always pushed me to keep going, no matter what. Even if I wanted to give up on a difficult problem, you encouraged me to stick it through to the solution." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Inez, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I-"_

_"Sub-control room B6," Inez interrupted sharply, pointing to the door that they had reached._

_"Oh. Yeah. Okay." Matt slowly dropped the arm he had been using to gesture towards her, looking a little dejected. "Let's, uh… let's go." As Inez followed him through the doorway, she inwardly berated herself for cutting him off. Yet she still felt too young, too incompetent to have the conversation that she knew that they had been putting off. _

_Awkward tension reigned for a moment in the small room that was illuminated solely by screens and buttons. _

_"Talk about weird signals!" Matt, the bolder of the two, broke the silence and motioned towards the console that sat on the far left of the long, lit-up counter. "I've never seen anything like this."_

_Inez joined him and gasped. The rectangular detection consoles, which were stationed all over control central, were meant to detect any suspicious or malevolent activity, whether it be a trespasser or a virus directed at Motherboard. Their translucent surfaces rippled with neon red waves when they detected something amiss, but stayed a hazy, glowing purple when all was at peace. _

_But this console was showing neither. It flashed from grainy television static to a range of psychedelic colors faster than Inez could blink. She was thankful that neither of them had epilepsy. _

_"Something isn't right here..." Matt muttered, his brow furrowed. _

_"Inez! Matt!" Motherboard's voice suddenly boomed from Inez's pocket. She quickly removed her skwak pad. "We're here in the control room, Motherboard, and you were right about the signals. I've never seen anything like this."_

_"It's gotta be malfunctioning," Matt added. _

_"That may.. or may not be true," Motherboard said warily. "But, listen to me... In the time that you two took to get to the control room, I... began receiving similar signals from the rest of the consoles in control central." _

_Inez and Matt found each other's glance. "Over 400 consoles malfunctioning at the same time?" she asked. _

_"I... don't think that's likely," Matt replied, still a little shocked. _

_Inez handed the skwak pad to Matt as she worriedly said "This is not good. This is not good at all!" _

_"I need you two to come back to the control room immediately," Motherboard's voice commanded. "Something is very wro-"_

_The ruler's face was replaced by an invasion of the same static and psychedelic colors as the console. _

_Matt yelled and dropped the skwak pad in surprise. Its clatter covered the sound of footsteps in the doorway. _

_"Come on, we've got to get back like Motherboard wanted," Inez said anxiously, allowing urgency to take over her voice. "Something really bad is going on."_

_"But WHAT IS IT that's happening?" Matt said loudly, his arms raised as he looked at the console and the fallen skwak. "Why is the entire system glitching?" _

_Inez froze, suddenly visited by a childhood memory of a dark spaceship and vicious laughter. "Matt, we've been stupid.. someone's behind this. I think you know exactly who we're dealing with," she said slowly, emphasizing each syllable with fearful apprehension._

_"You can't be talking about..." Matt said, his tone surprised and a touch derisive._

_From directly behind them, an all-too-familiar voice maliciously intoned "Oh, but I think she _is_, earthbrat."_

_Inez locked terrified eyes with Matt before turning around to face the evil grin of The Hacker. _


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hey guys! I am now back in school, so updates will unfortunately be more sporadic. My goal is a new chapter by early February.

Unrelated, but I just have to throw in that I was watching the Greek mythology episode from the first season and during it they fell into a river and Matt was like "Woah, look at all these sticks". That totally went over my head when I was a kid and I honestly can't stop laughing even though it's such a stupid pun. Ok, enough from me - happy reading!

Chapter Three

The fading portal roughly spit Matt and Jackie out, tumbling them onto his bedroom floor. As they oriented themselves, light from a setting sun filtered through tall oaks outside his window and spanned across the messy room.

Jackie stood up suddenly, tears threatening to splash from her eyes. "Matt... I'll talk to you later, I gotta go." Her voice wavering, she rushed out of the room before he could respond.

_She's scared of me because of how I acted towards Inez, _he thought dejectedly. _And frankly, I don't blame her in the slightest. _

He got up and lay facedown on his bed, the exhaustion, frustration, and hopelessness of the war finally defeating him.

_How could I have been so stupid? _Matt thought angrily, slamming his fist onto his pillow. He had abandoned Inez to the most dangerous situation imaginable, not to mention the verbal assault he inflicted upon her before he left her behind. To make matters worse, he had no idea when Motherboard would have the strength to piece together another shaky portal to transport him back to her.

He attempted to reassure himself by reflecting on all the times in their childhood when Inez had stepped up to save the day. She kept her head and rescued herself during the Radopolis skate-off, she scaled the mountain when the other three Cybersquad members were Hackerized, she solved innumerable puzzles and always seemed to come through for the squad in the end...

_Nezzie can handle it. She's tough. She's resourceful. She's... _

Matt let the anguish overcome him. _She's sixteen, she's beautiful, she's stubborn, she's smart, she's perfect, she's vulnerable, she's _Inez _and I can't believe that I left her alone in Cyberspace. All I want is for her to be safe._

A soft tapping came from his door. "Matt?" His mother peered around the doorway. Her face showed concern, and graying flyways popped out of her auburn ponytail.

He quickly sat up and attempted to be nonchalant. "Hey, Mom."

"Are you okay?" She quickly scanned the room. "What happened, honey? Jackie ran out of the house sobbing, but I didn't see Inez..."

_Oh, god._ "I'm fine," he responded. "And I-Inez went out with Jackie, you must have missed her."

"Really? Huh. Well, Inez IS a quieter crier than Jackie," she said thoughtfully. "Why were the girls so upset? I hope you didn't do something to hurt them."

Matt had a close relationship with his mother, ignoring his elephant in the room concerning adventures in an alternate universe. Generally, lying to her was difficult. He decided to adapt the truth. "Well... we sort of had a fight. Me and Jackie really didn't agree with Inez about a decision she made."

"What was it about?"

"I- Inez wouldn't want me to talk about it." He gave that response because he knew that his mother wouldn't press for information, but he winced at the vagueness.

"Well, it's natural to want the best for people you care about, but you need to be gentle and give them space," she said kindly, in the quiet manner that she always used to give her son advice. "You have to control that temper."

_Not when their lives are at stake, _he thought bitterly. "I'll remember that."

She smiled at him. "Good. And while I'm up here, let's talk about that calculus grade."

_Crap_. What was she talking about? Returning to the real world was like trying to find where he had left off in a book he had forgotten to bookmark. Matt wracked his brain but came up empty-handed. "Sorry, mom, what grade?" he asked.

She looked at him like he was from another planet (which, to be fair, was starting to hold some truth). "The math test you flunked? The test that you left on the table when you came home from school with the girls? And immediately ran upstairs, I might add."

Oh. THAT test. The test that had taken place while he simultaneously created battle plans. School had become a secondary concern, but there was no way to explain that to his mother.

"Listen, I just didn't study enough for it this time. It's not going to happen again," he said with a contrived air of confidence.

His mother raised her eyebrows, her expression skeptical. "You _can't _let it happen again," she told him warningly. "Your father and I are so proud of what you've achieved. I know you're a senior, but don't jeopardize your accomplishments now."

Matt sighed. He knew his mother was referencing the subject of his impending future as a college student. He hated thinking about it. Even if the mess in Cyberspace miraculously worked out, college meant leaving Inez. Despite the fact that there was no indication that she reciprocated his feelings, he couldn't imagine being happy while distanced from her.

"I'm sorry. I messed up, big time. I promise that I'll put more effort into calc," he lied reluctantly. Truthfully, he knew that he should be doing much better in the class, but he also found that he did not care in the slightest. After he started high school, it did not take him very long to discover that the subject he had been enamored with throughout middle school no longer held his attention. At this point, he really had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, and the burden of Cyberspace's war ensured that he simply did not care.

"It's fine, Matt, we all make mistakes," his mother reassured. "But you don't have all the time in the world to recover, and colleges are not going to happy with a poor grade…"

"I'll do better, Mom. I'm not going to fail," he said firmly.

"Okay." She smiled and gave his arm a pat before exiting the room.

Matt rolled over onto his back, facing the ceiling. _We're not going to fail_, he thought resolutely, thinking of Cyberspace, of Motherboard, of… Inez. _We will do better. _

He stretched his arm down to his backpack on the floor to pull out his skwak pad. He quickly sent a text to Digit: _Pls have Motherboard prep another portal 4 me and Jacks ASAP. LMK when ready._ Dropping the skwak, he tried to relax, reminding himself that as horrible as he felt, the situation was out of his hands until Digit responded. He would be reunited with Inez soon, and he would fix everything.

_I'll bring her home, she'll get the break she needs, and then… we can refocus. _

_We _will _bring Hacker down._

* * *

_His eyes were lying to him. That was the only possibility. There was no other feasible way to explain that Cyberspace's most twisted, villainous excuse for a cyborg was standing in front of him. _

_Hacker was not unrecognizable, but his appearance was altered. He had substituted his wig for another that didn't give him a receding hairline, and it was swept back into a ponytail. He had lost some weight, but not much; just enough to make him more proportionate and slightly less bumbling. The biggest change was in his eyes. His stare had gone from greedy and mischievous to cold, calculating, and utterly maniacal. _

"_Well, I see I've rendered you speechless, kiddies," Hacker slyly grinned. "Actually… I suppose 'kiddies' isn't entirely appropriate for you two anymore…" He slowly moved forward and ran the backs of his fingers down Inez's trembling cheek. "My, my, Inez, how you've grown… Time flies." _

_Shaking with fury, Matt protectively stepped in front of her. "Don't _ever _touch her again," he snarled. _

"_They speak! I knew I would get you there in the end." Hacker exclaimed triumphantly. "Why, I didn't mean to shortchange you, Matthew; you are well on your way to manhood." There was something deeply frightening about the cyborg's languorous, simpering tone. Hacker seemed to be enjoying - no, _relishing _every second that he could cause them discomfort._

_Matt felt Inez gently push him aside; she had regained some composure. "But… how are you here? You disappeared… we thought you were gone for good! I remember, I was twelve!" Her voice tremored in disbelief. _

"_Oh, my dear, I thought you were the smart one," Hacker shook his head in faux disappointment. "You didn't really believe that I was… dead, did you? How distasteful… Well, it's true that Marbles managed to get rid of me for you."_

"_Yeah, Dr. Marbles was a huge help, but we weren't just waiting around for him to save us," Matt savagely cut in. "We ALL worked the hardest we ever had that day to make damn sure that you never terrorized Motherboard or Cyberspace again!"_

"_Yes, yes, you all somehow managed to foil my plan yet again, and you rendered me nearly powerless," Hacker replied boredly. "Of course, _nearly _is the key word… I didn't return to the Northern Frontier after that, but that didn't mean I was _gone_. I thought that even someone with the intellectual capacity of my duncebuckets or the cyberturkey would know that."_

"_Call your henchmen what you want, but our friend's name is Digit," Inez fiercely retaliated._

"_Have you forgotten that it was I who created Digit?" Hacker's eyes glittered. "Family ties…"_

"_Cut the crap, Hacker," Matt said tersely._

_The villain smiled cunningly. "That's _The _Hacker, to you. How long has it been since I've had to say _that_, I wonder…" _

"_That's it, I'm done listening to you talk. We're out of here." Matt began to make for the door._

_In one imposing, swift motion, Hacker swooped and grabbed Inez, pinning her arms behind her back and holding her against him. "I don't think you'll be leaving, lover boy," he growled dangerously. Inez's face was scrunched up in excruciating pain. "You… horrible… evil… let… go!" she gasped._

_Matt's stomach dropped, every cell of his body silently screaming. Matching the cyborg's dark tone, he uttered "Let her go. Now."_

"_Not just yet," Hacker responded, easily restraining Inez as she attempted to escape his grasp. "And there's another sight you should see." He clicked a button on a remote in his hand. A large screen on the wall immediately lit up, displaying live security footage of the main room. Jackie and Digit were handcuffed back-to-back in the center of the floor, with Buzz and Delete standing guard. Matt's heart sank. The fearful submission in the henchmen's eyes was all he needed to see to know that something within Hacker had snapped._

"_So, my dear boy, you're really in no position to be defying my will," the cyborg said. "I suggest that you humor me and listen well, unless you wish greater harm to be inflicted upon your friends." He tightened his grip on Inez, who had ceased protest, her face white as a sheet._

_Desperate to save her and his friends, Matt realized that his immediate impulse to fight back would only cause greater harm. He clenched his fists. "Go on, asshole," he conceded through gritted teeth._

"_Good." The dangerous smile reappeared. "Now, where were we… Ah, yes. I was the weakest I had ever been after that encounter, although I still remained the dashingly good-looking villain that I am…"_

_As Hacker rambled on, Matt furiously wracked his brain for ideas. They needed immediate outside help. His whirling thoughts turned to Marbles… But the squad hadn't seen or contacted him in at least a year. With Motherboard seemingly safe, he had left to do extensive research with Lady Lovelace. Still, it seemed to be their only hope. Maintaining eye contact with Hacker, Matt ever so slowly moved his hand to the outside of his pocket. He found the raised button on his skwak that would immediately send a homing signal to Marbles, subtly pressed it through the fabric, and prayed._

"_...I couldn't go back to the Northern Frontier, so I had to turn elsewhere. I think you children often forget that I am not the only force of evil in Cyberspace… I have friends in low places." The villain grinned. "My years in hiding allowed me to grow stronger than ever before, to create a virus that would incapacitate Motherboard, to form allies that will destroy anyone in my path during my ascension to the throne. You all felt safe in my absence, but little did you know that I would return when you least expected, when Motherboard seemed perfectly healthy, when your happiness appeared to be here to stay. And here I am!" He exploded in maniacal laughter as Inez verged on frantic tears. "Your _worst nightmare_."_

"_Matt, we have to do something, the virus is attacking Motherboard NOW!" Inez shouted in agony as Hacker crushed her arms. "No reason to protest, dear, you're powerless and I've WON!" Hacker screeched. Dials and small screens around the room flashed different colors; the overhead lights flickered. The security footage on the camera was even more chaotic; Jackie and Digit struggled frantically to get out of their bonds. Matt remained frozen, unable to react. _Come on, Marbles… you're our only hope.

"_MATT!" Inez shrieked, panicked and hysterical as the flickering got worse and Hacker's laughter crescendoed into a roar. "DO SOMETHING!"_

Come on, Marbles… come ON, MARBLES…

_Suddenly, the screen displaying the security footage went black. Hacker's gleeful expression fell slightly. "Odd…" he mused. "No matter… no, I need to know what's happening in there… what the hell is wrong with this thing?" He threw Inez to the ground. Matt immediately started toward her, when out of nowhere - an unseen force knocked him down as well - a blinding flash of light -_

"_EEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"_

_The light slowly faded away to reveal the room still in chaos, but Hacker was gone. _

_The echo of his angered scream lingered long in his wake._


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I truly apologize for not updating in so long, that's really not fair to you guys! Whenever I'm not in class or at work, I am usually pretty distracted by Netflix and Youtube... But I will do better! Nice reviews always encourage me to get back at it. This chapter is the last major flashback (at least for a while), and it finishes up the story of Hacker's return. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Four

_Black, silent waves. There was no feeling, a sense of numbness as she lay in the dark deep of the ocean. The rhythmic, cooling movements of the water pulsed smoothly beneath her. Then..._

_"Inez, can you hear me? Inez, please, you have to wake up!" The muffled voice was frantic._

_As she floated closer to breaking the surface and awakening, the numbness faded. She became aware of throbbing, excruciating pain in her arms and pressure on her shoulders. _

_"Inez... Inez! I need you..." The voice broke._

_She came up through the waves. Her eyes fluttered open. Matt's desperate face floated above her, his hands gripping her shoulders. He closed his eyes upon seeing her open ones._

_"Oh god, thank god." He dropped his head. "Are you all right?" _

_Inez attempted to orient herself as quickly as possible, the chaotic sub-control room slowly coming back into focus. "I'm fine. Just... just got knocked out." She tried and failed to sit up, but suddenly felt herself carefully lifted by strong arms and her face pressed into Matt's chest. _

_"Inez, I'm so, so, sorry," he cracked. She felt his arms tighten around her; she could feel the vibrations of his voice rumble through her as he spoke. His entire body shook around her, expressing relief and lingering fear."I froze... I just stood there and let him hurt you. I'll never forgive myself." _

_"It's okay, Matt," she whispered into his chest. "I'll be okay." She was struggling to know what to feel and how to react, but at that moment, she could only appreciate the safety of the embrace. "How long was I out?"_

_"I guess... It felt like forever, but I guess it was just a couple of minutes. He knocked you out when he threw you." His voice dropped an octave at the mention of the cybervillain._

_Stiffening, Inez pushed away and slowly got to her feet, ignoring the pain screaming in her arms. "We have to come to terms with it now," she said in a low, resolute voice. "It seemed impossible, too horrible to be true. But it happened. We need to face it." She turned towards Matt, looking directly into his furiously petrified eyes. "Hacker's b-"_

_"GUYS!" Jackie and Digit came bursting through the doorway. Inez's heart leapt at the sight of their friends, safe and sound. "Oh, thank god you're okay," Jackie let out a huge sigh of relief, pulling Inez into a hug. She accepted the embrace gratefully, hugging her friend back as tightly as possible._

_Digit offered a wing towards Matt, hurriedly helping him up off the floor. "You'll never believe it - Dr. Marbles is here! We have to head back and help however we can." He whirred out of the room before he finished speaking._

_"My homing signal worked!" Matt thrust his fist in the air as he began running out of the small control room and back down the hallway. Inez made to follow him but found herself stopped by a hand on her shoulder. "Did you see him? Was… was he here?" Jackie asked, seeming to somehow hope that the response could be negative. _

_Inez slowly trained her eyes downward to the floor. "Yes," she said in a whisper, her voice refusing to amplify. She swallowed the dry emptiness and looked back up at her friend. "Yes, he was in here. He's back."_

_Jackie gave a little cry, appearing to surprise herself. "Sorry… I just… even when Buzz and Delete showed up, I still couldn't believe what was happening. It's been so long…" Jackie looked off to the side. "They were weird, Inez. So quiet and scared. They were always so mischievous in the past… Never like today."_

"_Yeah, well… Let's head back to help." Inez once more began to go towards the exit._

"_Wait." The sudden coldness in her friend's voice caused her to stop in her tracks. "Inez, what happened to your arms?"_

_Cursing herself for wearing a short-sleeved shirt, Inez glanced down at her pained arms. The skin was already bruising from the cybervillain's ruthless grasp. Jackie quickly stepped forward and gently examined the skin. "These bruises show the outlines of hands," she said lowly. "He- he _did _this to you, didn't he?"_

_Inez closed her eyes. "It's done, he's gone for now. Come on, we have to help, we don't have time-"_

"Matt _let him do this to you?" Jackie interrupted, fearful, sorrowful tears in her wide eyes._

"_He wasn't able to… Matt didn't… he couldn't…" Inez could not bring herself to discuss the subject any further. and, suppressing her own tears, finally left the room. Jackie followed close behind her._

_The friends breathless, emerged from the hall into the control room. Motherboard's screen was black, with a red installation bar slowly creeping towards being completely full. Beeps and flashes of light emitted from all of the manual controls. A harried Dr. Marbles rushed back and forth, typing various commands and shouting directions to Matt and Digit, who were standing by to help: "Press escape! Delete the file! Close that!"_

"_I've never seen her like this…" Jackie said worriedly, rushing forward to shut a smoking flap among the controls that had sprung open._

"_If Matt hadn't sent for me when he did, I would have been too late," Marbles replied while typing. "A virus attack of this magnitude was unheard of until today."_

"_What was that flash? How did you get rid of the Hacker?" Digit asked._

"_I moved him, Buzz, and Delete to the recycle bin," the doctor said shortly. The response was off-putting, but Inez knew that Marbles often was more comfortable using computer-speak to describe events, and decided not to prod further. He twisted a dial and a few lights stopped flashing. "They will be able to return very soon, which is why I am rushing to put all of control central into a zip file. Hacker will not be able to find or enter here again after that."_

"_But we have to stop that virus installation!" Matt yelled, pointing at the ominously inching red bar. "Think how far gone Motherboard is already!"_

"_I am working on the processes simultaneously, Matt, but the immediate priority is to make sure that Hacker cannot - get - BACK!-"_

_Another blinding flash of light overtook the room. All sounds seemed muffled to Inez, and time briefly felt suspended… until everything came flooding back into focus._

_The lighting in the room and the patterns of stars revealed by the windows were different. "We are now in a different location of Cyberspace, and control central is virtually undetectable," Marbles explained, unflinchingly returning to the keyboard. "The facility is invisible and it is impossible to enter unless the exact location is known."_

_As the doctor and her friends continued to work desperately, Inez was hit with the surrealness of the situation. How long had it been since the last time Hacker forced them to go into crisis mode? Had they ever_ been _this panicked? Like Jackie, she knew that something was different this time. Something in the cybervillain had changed, and she doubted that things would ever be the same. _

"_Delete that file… and that one… turn the blockers back on… and…" The frightening red bar came to a stop and faded away. The lights ceased their blinking; all of the noises halted. "And… done," an exhausted Marbles said quietly. Silence hung in the room._

_The screen remained black. Seeing the squad's frightened faces, the doctor explained: "Motherboard is now-semi dormant. Hacker's virus was crippling; it likely weakened her at least three times as much as the first virus he inflicted upon her. Now more than ever, we need to support our leader."_

_Inez turned away, overcome by how quickly everything had gone wrong. Motherboard was fading, Hacker had returned, Matt… Matt had let him hurt her. _

"_Inez." Matt slowly came up next to her and softly touched her bruised arm. "Inez, I'm so, so sorry…" _

_She wanted so desperately to fully forgive him, to let him be her protector, and to fulfill the changing feelings she had been experiencing. But she couldn't let herself. She buried all of the conflicting emotions to a place where they wouldn't show._

I have to be strong for Motherboard. I will be a warrior.

"_I'm fine." She shook away from him and turned to her friends. "Come on. Cyberspace needs us."_

* * *

She awoke from the dream shivering, once again staring at the closet ceiling and defeated by the terrible memory of her personal hell's inception.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: SORRY Y'ALL! Thanks so much to those of you who asked about the story. Here, finally, is an update. It's a bit short and could be better, but the next chapter after this will be a bit more fulfilling.. As for this chapter, I knew it was time for some insight into a character that hasn't had much of a voice in this story. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Five

Condensation dripped down the glass of iced water at an excruciatingly slow pace. Any housewife would have cringed at the sight of the droplets finally reaching the sleek, dark hardwood surface of the countertop, creating a ring underneath the coasterless glass. But the house was empty, save for the motionless young woman sitting on a barstool at the counter.

Jackie aimlessly traced her finger in the moisture collecting next to her cup. The huge stainless-steel refrigerator produced a soft whirr, and she could hear the tick-tock of the antique clock from the hall, discordant with the click of the cat's claws on the hardwood foyer floor. Normally, left alone while her parents were at work, she would turn on a mindless reality TV show to fill the void with a semblance of life, but that particular day, the sounds produced by the empty house did not deter her.

Nothing could have prepared her for the emptiness she had felt _inside _for the past two days. As soon as she and Matt had arrived back on Earth, the sadness, guilt, and loneliness hit her like a ton of bricks. As the days progressed, it felt like more and more of herself was disappearing.

At dinner two nights before, she was hit with the worst blow. She had tried to mask her inner turmoil as she chatted with her mother about homecoming (How could she even pretend to care about the football game and dance?) and fake-laughed at her father's crazy stories involving his coworkers. But once the dishes were stacked and her parents were pouring themselves glasses of wine, the smooth jazz radio station was interrupted by a harsh phone ring. Her parents were confused at receiving a phone call this time of evening, but Jackie instantly knew who was calling.

"I'll get it," she said raspily, pushing her chair in. Each step towards the phone felt an hour long, but she grabbed it and answered without looking at the caller ID. "H-hello?" she choked out.

"Jackie!" Inez's mother sounded friendly, but Jackie detected disguised worry. "Jackie, hi! Sorry to bother you - Inez is over at your house, right? She hasn't been replying to my texts and calls, her phone must have died again." As she spoke, her speech quickened and her accent became more pronounced, as it always did when she experienced stronger emotions.

_Say she's here. Say that she's sleeping over. _The last thing in the world that Jackie wanted to do was say the words she knew she had to say. She knew Inez's mom was waiting for her reply, probably thinking that her fears were irrational, not knowing that she should feel very, very scared for her daughter's well being…

"Oh, hi! Um… I haven't seen Inez since school today," Jackie managed to get out, putting on a look of faux confusion for her observing parents. "Did you check with Matt?"

"No, I didn't… I will do that next. Or maybe she's still at school for the science olympiad team, I know she's had to stay late for that recently."

"Yeah. That might be it." Jackie did everything in her power to keep her voice from shaking.

"Listen to me! The worrying mother." A forced laugh came out of the speaker. "I'll check with Matt's family. Thanks anyway, Jackie!"

"No problem. Hope you hear from her soon." Jackie turned away from her parents as she hung up the phone to hide her emerging tears.

"Inez hasn't come home yet?" her mother inquired, putting down the magazine she had been vaguely glancing at.

"Yeah, but she's come home late before, sometimes she gets distracted," Jackie said in a monotone, looking down at her own cell phone to avoid eye contact. "She'll get there." Unable to keep up the pretense any further, she raced out of the kitchen, upstairs, and into the vast softness of her bed, where her screams and sobs would be unheard to anyone but her pillow and herself.

Over the next two days, it was quickly found out that Inez had not been at Matt's house, nor at school working on science olympiad. The "MISSING" posts were plastered on social media and news outlets. School was unbearable; everyone wanted to talk to Jackie about how awful it must be to have no idea where her friend was, when in reality she knew exactly where Inez was, and the helplessness of being able to do nothing about it was much, much worse.

As she sat alone in her home, she could feel nothing. The emotions of fear, guilt, anxiety, and anger had subsided into a numb radio silence. She did not flinch when the front door abruptly swung open, causing the cat to skitter upstairs, nor did she look up when the visitor entered the kitchen.

"We have to talk at some point."

"Do we?" Jackie replied. She didn't intend to sound malicious, she just didn't know what else to say.

"Yes." Matt took a seat next to her. "Jacks, I'll never be able to forgive myself for leaving Inez behind." Already, his voice was catching in his throat. "The thought of her there alone is enough to make me go crazy, but-"

"Matt, it wasn't just you," she interrupted resolutely. "I let it happen. I could have stopped you from being so irrational and made you see how you were letting your temper flare up, but instead I just _froze_, and I followed." She took her first sip of iced water, marveling at herself for admitting these things to him… and to herself. "And honestly, _I _was sick of it too. I wanted to leave. I wanted out, and I still do. In that moment, I couldn't understand why she wouldn't just LISTEN and come with us. So I chose to ride along with your outburst and to do what was easy: leave her there." She couldn't remember the last time she'd been so blatantly honest. She'd had to hide so much from her parents and friends recently, and she hadn't even been that open with Matt and Inez.

"Jacks…"

She let her head rest on her crossed arms and once again, she cried. But these were tears of exhaustion and of relief from finally letting herself be truthful and open about her conflicting feelings. They evolved into the usual: tears of foreboding and worry for Inez, and she found that she could not stop.

"Shhh… it's okay." She felt a slight pressure as Matt began to rub her back in circular motions. The brotherly gesture, although comforting, reminded her of something else.

_They lay on the roof on a pristine summer night, cloaked by a moonlit sky. The warmth of their interlocked fingers was more than enough to keep the occasional breeze from disturbing her. The moment was beyond perfect, and yet…_

"_I should get back," she sighed, beginning to prop herself up on her elbows. _

"_Not yet," he pleaded. She turned to give him a look of exasperation, but gently smoothed his flopping brown hair back from his forehead. "I have to go…" she insisted. _

"_Stay with me." He brought his lips to her skin. Neck kisses. He knew she couldn't resist those…_

"_Okay, okay, I'll stay a little longer," she laughed, turning over to meet his lips with hers._

"You okay, Jacks?" She became aware that she had stopped crying, lost in the memory.

"Y-yeah. Thanks." She reached across the bar for a tissue.

"We both messed up big time, and we have to do everything in our power to fix it," Matt said firmly. "We can't erase our mistake, but we will do whatever we can to bring Nezzie back. We have to be strong."

Jackie shook herself out of the remnants of the daydream and mustered up her resolve. "Are you insinuating that _I_, Jackie, am being _weak_? Nuh-uh! We WILL save Inez! Make room, I gotta pace!" She felt a piece of her old self come back as she hopped down from the bar stool.

"Right on, Jacks," Matt grinned as he reached into his backpack for his buzzing skwak. "And it looks like we can start right now. The portal's ready."


End file.
